Space Exploration Technologies (better known as SpaceX) has collected all flight hardware for the debut launch of the Falcon 9 rocket at its Cape Canaveral, Fla., launch site and started assembly, the company announced Thursday.Final delivery included the Falcon 9 second stage, which recently completed testing at SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas. The rocket is 154 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter, and will carry a demonstration unit of the Dragon spacecraft.Following full integration, SpaceX will conduct a static firing to demonstrate flight readiness and confirm operation of ground control systems in preparation for actual launch."We expect to launch in one to three months after completing full vehicle integration," Brian Mosdell, director of Florida launch operations for SpaceX, said in a news release. "Our primary objective is a successful first launch and we are taking whatever time necessary to work through the data to our satisfaction before moving forward."NASA has contracted SpaceX to haul cargo to the International Space Station on the Dragon starting this year. SpaceX said the Falcon 9 is "designed from the beginning to transport crew."

Engineers at Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) are reviewing data after an automatic abort of its nine-engine Falcon 9 launch vehicle on the pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on March 9.The engines did not ignite for a planned 3.5-second static test, although flames appeared briefly beneath the rocket on the pad at Launch Complex 40, and a cloud of black smoke drifted away from the kerosene-fueled launch vehicle.“The brief flames seen on the video are burn-off of LOX and kerosene on the pad,” the company said in a statement. “The engines did not ignite and there was no engine fire.” The company said the abort went nominally after an unspecified problem with the spin start system two seconds before ignition. All other systems were go for ignition, the company said, and all other pad systems worked as planned.SpaceX is preparing to launch the Falcon 9 with a mock-up Dragon capsule in the first demonstration of its ability to fly cargo — and perhaps eventually crew — to the International Space Station (ISS).

Nearing the end of the Falcon 9’s second stage burn, the engine nozzle glows orange-hot as expected. Second stage shutdown occurred about eight and a half minutes after liftoff, placing the vehicle in a 250 kilometer (155 mile) circular orbit above the Earth. Photo Credit: SpaceX.

SpaceX's Dragon capsule became the first sucessful commerical space vehicle when it lifted off aboard the California-based compnay's Falcon 9 on mission co-sponsored by NASA and was recovered from its Pacific Ocean splashdown hours later.

The "extremely successful" 8 December mission marked the first time the US space agency launched a commercial vehicle and the first time the Federal Aviation Administration issued alicense to a commercial company to re-enter a spacecraft from orbit and the first flight under a NASA demonstration program helping to develop new commercial vehicles.

The launch, the second for the Falcon 9 two-stage-to-orbit rocket, was intended to prove the structural integrity of the Dragon spacecraft, on-orbit operation, re-entry, descent and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. And by all accounts, it was a smashing success, particularly for a first outing.

"My mind is blown. There's so much that can go wrong and it all went right," says SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. "I'm sort of in semi-shock. I wish I could be more articulate at moments like this. But it's hard to be articulate with a blown mind."

The Falcon 9's nine liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene-fueled Merlin engines lifted off with the 48m (157.8ft) rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 10:43 a.m. EST. Nine minutes and 11,000ft later, the second stage, also a Merlin engine, shut down and separated from the Dragon capsule, heading for a 300km (186mi) circular orbit at a 34.5 degree inclination. After two trips around the Earth - which took about two and a half hours - Dragon descended toward the Pacific Ocean at a rate of about 8m per second, hitting its target splashdown location within 800m and one minute of its target time, "which was awesome," says SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell.

Whatever it was, it had a nice ride. The new heat shield co-developed by NASA Ames Research Center and SpaceX "barely noticed re-entry," the company says, and a steady temperature will easily be maintinaed in the cabin for cargo - even if the cargo is humans, which Musk says is an easy move to make.

"People sometimes thing the difference between a cargo aircraft and putting crew in it requires this enormous amount of magical pixie dust, but that's just not the case," Musk says. "If there people in the cargo bay, they would have had a very nice ride." But before astronauts can ride the Dragon to the space station, an escape system and other safety measures need to be added - and more testing and data analysis needs to be completed.

The mission's only real glitch so far was the fact that it was postponed by a day after cracks were discovered in the nozzle extension of the Falcon 9's second-stage engine. SpaceX traced the problem to a GN2 vent line that "caused flutter of the thinnest portion of the nozzle extension, creating the cracks," the company says. Engineers hand-cut the bottom 1.2m (4ft) of the nozzle extension and diffused the vent. Musk says he believes the rocket could have flown safely without the modification but made the change anyway in the name of caution.

Two more tests are scheduled for 2011, and Musk says SpaceX will be ready for the next mission by mid-year, expanding the flight envelope and possibly even going directly to the space station on the next mission - contingent on NASA's go-ahead, Musk says.

NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme is aimed at spurring growth in the commercial space industry and facilitating the birth of a private space cargo industry. After the space shuttle fleet's planned retirement in 2011, NASA will otherwise be entirely reliant on the commercial side and the Russian Soyuz programme to deliver supplies and new crews to the International Space Station.

SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station; rival Orbital Sciences landed a $1.9 billion deal for eight missions and is currently planning a 2011 test flight of its Taurus II rocket and Cygnus spacecraft.

The success of the COTS programme and the spacecraft born out of it would signal a new era in spaceflight - a move toward public-private partnership that could literally and figuratively launch a viable commercial industry.

"This is the first in a new generation of commercial launch systems that will help provide vital support to the International Space Station and may one day carry astronauts into orbit," says NASA administrator Charles Bolden. "This successful demonstration flight is an important milestone in meeting the objectives outlined by President Obama and Congress, and shows how government and industry can leverage expertise and resources to foster a new and vibrant space economy."

After Saturday's aborted launch attempt of the Falcon 9, a second attempt on 22 May was carried out successfully. The vehicle launched at 0744 GMT from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Now in orbit the Dragon spacecraft will be conducting several tests on its chase to rendezvous with the International Space Station. The biggest test of the craft will be the safe rendezvous, approach and docking with the station. If all goes well the Dragon craft will be captured by the stations robotic arm and dock with the station on 25 May. The craft is carrying non-essential cargo for the station and once successfully docked this will be unloaded. Under the current schedule the Dragon will remain docked with the ISS until 31 May. Once undocked the craft is planned to be deorbited over the Pacific Ocean and conduct a controlled re-entry, parachute descent and then splash down 300 miles of the the western coast of Southern California and then be recovered. If all the tests of the spacecraft are successful this will clear the way for SpaceX to start commercial re-supply missions to the Space Station under a contract with NASA. The first of these missions is currently planned for August this year.